Podcasts to Help Hospitality Workers with Mental Health

The AHA|SA and Employers Mutual Limited have developed a series of six podcasts dealing with mental health and wellbeing for managers and workers in hospitality.

This series of podcasts provides hands-on advice you can put into practice straight away.

As well as working with the broader business community for more than 15 years, organisational psychologist Hayley Lokan has worked closely with hospitality owners and managers, to understand the issues they face.

She’s a practical person and she offers a wealth of practical advice on mental health and wellbeing strategies for hospitality workers and managers.

A help sheet is provided with each podcast.

BUILDING INDIVIDUAL RESILIENCE

What does Resilience mean and why is it so important?

Resilience refers to our capacity to manage the everyday stress of work and yet remain healthy, rebound and learn from setbacks and prepare for “future challenges proactively.

This was an important skill before COVID-19, but since the pandemic – our ability to be resilient has become even more crucial.

We know from the research that resilience is not a personality characteristic; it’s not a trait that we are born with. We can develop our levels of resilience; like building any skill, it requires focus, perseverance and commitment.

The Resilience @ Work© framework, developed by Working with Resilience, outlines the seven factors that determine our levels of resilience. By understanding these factors, we can reflect on which of these aspects we do well, and where we may need to improve. It is important to remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to building our resilience.

WELLBEING

What does Wellbeing actually mean?

Wellbeing is a widely used term and can therefore be misleading or misunderstood. It is not just the absence of illness or disease, but it refers to how you feel about

yourself and your quality of life. Our wellbeing is a complex combination of our physical, mental, emotional and social health factors – including having good mental health, general life satisfaction and a sense of meaning or purpose.

How can we improve our wellbeing?

A framework developed by Royal Melbourne Hospital and Northwestern Mental Health Service provides a useful overview of the key components of wellbeing. By understanding the factors that impact our wellbeing, we are able to consider where our attention and focus is best spent.

MANAGING STRESS

What are the different types of stress? What are the sources of stress? How can you manage feelings of stress? This episode is full of helpful strategies you can put in place to deal with the stress in your life in hospitality – and life in general.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

What is emotional intelligence?

Emotional intelligence refers to our ability to recognise the feelings in ourselves and others. It also refers to our ability to manage emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.

Is it important?

Whereas the idea of emotional intelligence has previously been considered ‘fluffy’, we now have science and data to support its importance – particularly in the workplace. We know that emotional intelligence is a key success factor for strong leadership, customer service and sales, and provides the foundation for our relationships with one another. We also know that emotional intelligence is an important determinant in the mental health of young people.

Can we improve our emotional intelligence?

We can absolutely develop our emotional intelligence, but we need to understand what it actually involves. One of the most widely researched frameworks in this area has been developed by a company called RocheMartin. This framework breaks down emotional intelligence into 10 specific areas – or competencies – categorised into three areas: inner focus, outer focus and other focus.

DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS

Customers and COVID-19

Customer service is the foundation of the hospitality industry and can be a difficult job at the best of times. These challenges have only increased through the pandemic, introducing some significant changes to customer behaviours and expectations, as well as the way in which staff and customers interact.

However, as they say, heroes are often born out of crises and although testing, the changing dynamics to emerge since the pandemic may end up strengthening relationships between staff and customers in the future.

CHANGE

The Uncertainty of Change

Our ability to adapt to constant change has never been tested quite like it is right now.

We know that the introduction of some significant change can have incite emotional, behavioural and cognitive responses, which will often evolve over time. And interestingly, some of the responses to COVID-19 are only just starting to emerge now, particularly in relation to team collaboration and engagement.

During the peak of COVID-19 last year, some people reported feeling calmer, less stressed and more relaxed. They recognised that so much was outside of their control but the pandemic had forced them to slow down, stay home, spend time with family and tackle new tasks and activities.

Others responded completely differently – they felt anxious, trapped, claustrophobic and frustrated that they were forced into a totally different existence. A year later, and many people are still feeling impacted by the events of last year, recovering from a sense of isolation and loneliness.

There is no question that change brings about different responses in all of us. In almost all industries but particularly hospitality, societal and environmental change has created significant change to your workplaces as well. Now – more than ever the saying is true – change is the only constant.